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Carrier
Defence/Weapon Analysis: Boss In Quake II Mission Pack: Ground Zero, the Carrier is the first boss and guardian of the Hangars. The player will face the Carrier before he/she can secure the prototype Strogg fighter. The Carrier is very similar to the Hornet in that it can fly/hover but their armanents are different. Weapons Railgun *The Carrier will launch the Railgun very rarely, useally inbetween its Chaingun/Grenade Launcher routine, although it will barely ever hit if the player does not stop moving. Chaingun *The Carrier's most common attack. The Carrier will keep laying down constant fire and unless the player is strafing at full speed, he/she will be hit. Similar to the Hornet's but the fire is more constant like the Jorg's. Due to the power of its chainguns (6 damage per bullet), the player will loose alot of health quickly if he/she is caught in the spray and if the player does not come to this fight with armour, he/she is going to have a nightmare of a time defeating this thing (see below). Grenade Launcher *The Carrier will pause its chaingun fire every so often and launch 4 grenades just like a Gunner although he will launch them in an arc, spreading them out. Whilst easy to dodge, they are extreamly lethal and can easily cause death if the player does not see where they land. They pose the greatest threat if the player decides to take point on the balcony. Doing so will require strafing back and forth and if the player strafes to where the Carrier has just placed grenades, he/she is as good as dead. So whenever the Carrier launches grenades, make a mental note of where they are and stay away from that area for a few moments until they explode. Spawn & Homing Flyer *Much like the Medic Commander, which the player will know very well by this point, the Carrier can spawn Strogg into battle to aid in killing the player. Unlike the Medic, the Carrier can only spawn Flyer. Whilst Flyers may not seem that tough, groups of them firing on the player whilst he/she also has the Carrier laying down constant fire is what makes this battle a nightmare. As stated below, the best weapon to use is the BFG as not only does to deliver great damage to the Carrier, but it will also kill any Flyers in the area with ease. Do not attempt to target any of the Flyers with other weapons as piority must be to kill the Carrier asap and then the player can mop up the rest of the Flyers. *Anouther little trick that the Carrier has is to spawn a Homing Flyer. Sometimes, instead of spawning a normal Flyer who will shoot the player, the Carrier can spawn a single flyer which will spin violently and fly straight at the player like a homing missile. On contact, the Flyer will explode and deal a deadly 50 damage. Whilst it is very hard to dodge this attack in such an open room, the Homing Flyer can be easily shot down. Strategy Introduction *The hangar is large and there are 2 levels (lower floor and balcony) to choose to face this monster. If looked at from the entrance, the ramp to the balcony is on the right and on the left is a Plasmagun powerup. Right under the balcony are few extra powerups although intrestingly, nothing that is going to help much in the fight. To the left there is a small corridor leading to a locked door. *This is a very difficult fight and first time players can easily be taken off guard from the sudden apperance of the Carrier to the extent it can be nearly impossible to survive. The Carrier's chainguns are very accurate and can cut down a non-armored player in seconds. The Carrier can also place grenades which can easily kill if the player does not realise where they are. This is made even more difficult by the seemingly limitless amount of Flyers the Carrier can spawn into battle. A single Flyer may be an easy kill, 10+ of them firing from all directions whilst one of Quake's most powerful enemies is in the background becomes a nightmare. *Preparing for this battle is the key to defeating the Carrier without much trouble. First of, the BFG is the weapon of choice and with the number of Medic Commanders and Stalkers who drop Cell packs, the player should be able to use his/her BFG in the Unit and still be able to save a full 300 cells for this fight. Keep a mental note of locations of Cell packs the player has left behind so that he/she can go back and get them when the time is right. Anouther important factor is to have armor. Near the end of the level before this fight there is some Body Armor. Try to avoid picking it up and reach the end of the level, killing the Strogg (along with a very difficult fight with two Medic Commanders) and then come back for the body armor. This will make it much easier. The Fight *When the player goes through the door into the hangar, there will be a number of Flyers straight ahead and then ceiling will explode, revealing the Carrier. Fire a BFG blast at the exploding ceiling as soon as the player enters the room. With the charge up time and slow moving ball, the blast should reach the Carrier just as he emerges. Every BFG blast will easily kill any Flyers currently in the room. As the player fires the first BFG blast, run towards the left and pick up the Plasma Gun as this will give 50 Cells and thus an extra shot from the BFG. *There are two ways to do this, either stay up on the balcony, strafing back and forth or jumping down to the hangar floor and strafing with more freedom but the Carrier will have more of height advantage. If the player sticks to the balcony, then make sure he/she knows the layout and where the bends are. Any decrease in speed or bad angles will result in getting battered by the Carrier's chaingun and falling off the balcony can distract the player enough for them to be killed. As stated above, if the Carrier launches its grenades, then make sure to not strafe to where they have just landed as they do a total of 160 damage. *Make sure that every BFG blast makes a direct to deal the most damage possible. It does not matter where it hits, the Flyers will be destroyed. When the BFG runs dry, switch to the Chaingun as unload relentless fire upon it. If the player started with 300 Cells and picked up the Plasma Gun, then he/she will get 7 shots with the BFG and any health the Carrier has remaining will be very small so a quick burst of Chaingun fire will finish what evers left of this behemoth. *It is possible to defeat the Carrier without Armor although it is truly hard and stressful. Follow up tips above to help defeat this powerful Strogg or cheap shot it with a Quad Damage, which will kill it with a few BFG shots. Killing the Carrier will secure the Hangar and the Strogg ship located in it. Storywise, this is the ship the player uses to escape the area after he/she blows up the Gravity Well (next level). Category:Quake 2 Enemies Category:Bosses